The concept of “Exporting Islamic Revolution” was first formed by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the 1979 Islamic regime in Iran. Khomeini said that, "the concept of Exporting Islamic Revolution does not mean interfering in other nations' affairs, but it rather serves as an answer to the intellectual questions of human being who desires to learn divine knowledge."

But in fact, the leaders of the Islamic Revolution have grossly interfered in the affairs of neighboring countries. The regime has endlessly plotted to expand their influence in the Middle East, by reckless attempts at exporting revolution.

Khomeini propounded the slogan, "The Road to Jerusalem Goes Through Baghdad". Indeed, his goal was to capture Iraq, then seize Jerusalem and destroy Israel. The destructive slogan was widely promoted during the 1980s war between Iran and Iraq, which brought billions of dollars in damage to the two combatant countries and the wider region and emptied the national treasury of Iran.

That stalemated war was the first big defeat of the Khomeinist doctrine of Exporting Islamic Revolution. And in the process, the Islamic regime began to trouble Iranians by its political-Islamic orders, that were brutally carried out by its Islamic Revolution Committees.

The “unlimited-authority” committees (under the Interior Ministry mandate) were appointed to enforce Islamic regulations and moral standards for social behavior across the country. The Islamic law enforcement agents were directed to prosecute citizens who resisted the medieval Islamic codes. However, in the ensuing corruption of the Islamic police state, many officers stretched the rules, and either sexually abused citizens, or extorted bribes to release the defendants.

The officials who oversaw the regime policy of Exporting Islamic Revolution have never accepted any investigate or review process to look into such crimes by corrupt agents. This same corrupt regime has a policy to “devolutionize” other nations.

The Islamic Revolution was, in fact, a “DEVOLUTION”. That term well describes the kind of “reversed revolution” that has pushed Iran’s civilization back for hundreds of years.

How could any rational person believe such a revolution that ruined the country, and has caused billions of dollars of irreparable damage to the Iranian people, could serve as the savior model for other countries?

“Exporting of Shiite Revolution for Sunnis”, is how commented Ahura, from the Zoroastrian minority population in Iran: From the very day after the 1979 Iran revolution was won, the Iranian intellectuals became eager to hear an explanation of what was the ideology of their revolution. Because, in their view, revolutions can only result in the form of a particular ideology.

Early, Khomeini was asked this question, “What is your ideology?” But he, who obviously did not know the meaning of ideology at all, gave his one and only answer, “Islam[4]”. But others in the new administration knew that they would have to give a more coherent answer about ideological purpose to the intellectual community. Therefore, they began to formulate the "ideology of Islamic revolution".

That response then drove Khomeini to assert that he was following in the footsteps of “Shah Isma'il Safavid”, who, in order to invest followers in a new ideology against the Sunni Ottoman empire to secure his dynasty, carried the “Shahnameh” (an ancient and valuable book for Iranians, which is written in pure Farsi) in one hand; and with the other hand, dragged “Sheikh Al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki” from Jabal Amel, Lebanon off to Iran, to establish the Shiite innovation in the land.

Khomeini was forced to claim a comparable ideology, because the Islamic revolution of Iran had not coalesced from any one of that day’s prevalent ideologies, such as capitalism or socialism. Ultimately, the revolutionaries had to take bits of every available ideology and cobble them together to create something that would satisfy the intellectuals.

So, they called that conglomeration “the Islamic revolution of Iran’s Maktab (doctrine)”. This attempt led to the formation of something like a genetically engineered cell, with different genes cloned into it, even ones that conflicted with other genes.

One of these “genes” in the messy mix of Islamo-political ideas took the form of "exporting the revolution". The concept was borrowed most likely from the leftist revolutionary term, “internationalism”. In defining this new policy, the revolutionaries explained it as meaning to transfer the spiritual and divine values of the Islamic Revolution, and to bring their mission to the attention of the world.

But this foolish, naive policy was destined to fail from the moment it was formed, because of one very obvious reason—sectarian Islamic geography. Shia Iran is surrounded by hostile Sunni countries. In no circumstances can the themes of a Shiite revolution penetrate, expand and last in Sunni countries.

That is why Khomeini’s followers were forced to create and use proxy groups, such as Hezbollah, Hamas and so on, to operate in those neighboring Sunni Muslim countries. But their proxy solution still did not help them gain acceptance, and it even raised the anger of the neighboring Sunni governments.

Consequently, the revolution of 1979 turned into a terrorist regime which supports other terrorist groups in the Middle East, because they tried to expand by a naive and foolish policy. Now after 40 years of useless effort and squandering billions of dollars, this artificially cloned policy of exporting revolution not only failed to legitimize itself in Iran, but also became the source of numerous international disasters.

Mazdak, the well-known Iranian intellectual and retired educator, went a step further, by blaming the West as a source of the problem. He said that former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “created ISIS”, as President Trump also echoed in 2016. To drive his point home, Mazdak quoted[5] the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Let’s remember here, the people we are fighting today, we founded it 20 years ago.”

Then, Mazdak went further back in history, to strongly bash western policies during the Cold War, which he claimed led the region to be devastated, with millions left displaced and homeless, and thousands killed and wounded. He cited contemporary historical documents and concluded that the Islamic Revolution was actually advanced by western leaders to fulfill their own foolish ideas of what the Middle East should become.

The intellectual added that President Jimmy Carter was one of the worst ever for the region, which entangled the international community. The Carter administration and his European cohorts recklessly pulled the rug (out) from under Mohammad Reza Pahlavi[6] in favor of what became the mass murderous Khomeinist [Islamic] Revolution. In 1979, Carter is reported to have encouraged the Shah of Iran to "leave the country promptly."

When we look at the map of the Middle East, we don’t need to be an expert in geopolitics to realize that Iran[7]’s influence has increased over the last few years, while the United States’ role has diminished, as said Shabnam Assadollahi in 2015. That Canadian human rights activist and freelance writer/journalist of Iranian origin, and a former child prisoner of Evin Prison, concluded that the West must not be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm.

For the past decades, the Islamic regime has relentlessly pursued a global Islamic mission which was engineered by Ayatollah Khomeini, the regime’s founding dictator. Khomeini said, “We will export our revolution to the entire world.” And as Assadollahi explained, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Quds Forces have been resolutely dedicated to that destabilizing end.

IRGC commander, Mohammad Ali Ja’afari, clearly stated this revolutionary goal. He said, “Our Imam [Khomeini] did not limit the Islamic Revolution to this country … Our duty is to prepare the way for an Islamic world government.”

Today in Iran, the oppressed people are fed up with the Khomeinist regime. The country has been stuck in the economical-political swamp since 1979, as the Islamist-kleptocrats have decided to spend the national capital on a perpetually disastrous goal of Exporting Islamic Revolution and terrorism. The regime’s thugs and proxies remain dedicated to carrying out Khomeini’s ambitious folly.

The International community must recover from its mistake that led to this human disaster. This can be a major and important task for the West, especially if Washington shows a willingness to lead the world in that effort, under the strong guidance of President Trump.

By: Kaveh Taheri & Aynaz Anni Cyrus

Kaveh is a Turkey-based Iranian Human Rights researcher and journalist, co-founder and chairman of the ICBHR.Com and American Truth Project[1] Contributor.